Every few years we geeks have our own kind of popcorn show to watch: tech companies showing teeth to one another. This time around, it's Palm vs Apple. In all seriousness though, how ethical is the battle around iTunes?

I think many posters here are missing something when they say that Apple has to let the Pre sync with iTunes.

What if the Pre is only 99% (or 95% or less) compliant with the iTunes sync protocol? Apple certainly isn't going to test and certify the Pre is 100% compatible. What if Palm didn't correctly implement something and a Pre user tries to sync and it bricks his Pre? Who's fault is that; Apple? Palm?.

Of course the answer is Palm, but who is going to get the bad publicity for that, and class action lawsuits, etc? No doubt the conspiracy theorists would claim Apple did it on purpose.

If Apple has an error in the iPod implementation that causes an iPod to be bricked, that's obviously something Apple would have to fix. But if they brick an Pre...

And that is why (possibly among other reasons) Apple doesn't want to allow other devices to sync using iTunes. If Palm wants to utilize the iTunes library they can, but they'll have to write their own app to do it.